


Opalescent Dawn

by Razzledazzy



Series: Moon in Your Eyes, Sun in Your Hair [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, But it will definitely be a bigger thing if i ever continue this into a series, Deaf Character, F/F, Fluff, I don't know guys this was a whim, Mermaids, There's implied NaruSasu in this but it's not a main ship so I didn't tag, mute character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 08:04:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12931038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Razzledazzy/pseuds/Razzledazzy
Summary: Hinata was never much like other mermaids. She was too curious. Too spirited to bend under years of tradition.She's got gold in her hands and she's not going to let it slip away.





	Opalescent Dawn

Hinata wasn’t exactly the most common mermaid. There were things she wished to know, things she wished to see that did not align with her family’s values. Those values had been impressed on her for her entire life. As the heir to the entire pod, Hinata carried the weight of those assumptions and fears everywhere like an anchor dragging her entire world down into the coldest depths.

Never had there been a more pressing time to eschew those values as when she saw the sinking form of a human with a stream of pale gold reaching up to the surface of the water.  

Her father had said many things, many things that Hinata thought were seahorse shit. Never approach land dwellers this, they destroyed everything they couldn’t see that. It was wrong to let someone die. Whether they were of royal blood or not. She hooked her arm through the human’s, dragging the current of pale gold behind her as she rose to the surface.

The shore wasn’t that far away, but the human must have exhausted herself before she could reach it. What was she doing out here before dawn? Hinata mused over the conundrum while she approached the shore with swift flicks of her tail. 

The oil slick sheen of her scales in the moonlight sparkled where they were exposed to the air. She drug the waterlogged human up onto the shoreline. The sand would probably scrape at the human's skin, it was irritating Hinata's scales already, but better injured than drowned. Blonde hair tangled with seaweed framed a face that mirrored the setting moon above her in splendor. She was _so_ pale. Was that normal for humans?

Her hair was longer than Hinata had even seen mermaids keep it. How on earth did she manage to keep it so long?

Hinata placed a hand on the sternum of the pale woman. There was a faint thrum, but no breath rose from those pale pink lips. Lips paling in the moonlight the longer the human went without air. She lived but not for much longer without intervention.

The mermaid moved her hand through the air, centered her magic across a flat palm gathering up the ambient energy from the salt charged waves crashing over the nearby shore.

A gentle strike to the sternum, and the woman was coughing, a deep rasp as she spat out seawater and a small strand of kelp. Ouch, that had to hurt. A faint glow faded from the human's sternum, leaving behind a pale circle about the size of Hinata's palm above the human's breasts.

The woman groaned, but jolted into awareness quickly to sit up.

Hinata screeched in surprise as the blonde’s forehead nearly crashed into her nose. The woman looked baffled, raising one hand to her ear and making a snapping motion with her hand. She raised both hands together and clapped right next to her ear, making a frown. What… was she doing? Hinata copied the motion, hearing the snap of her fingers as they clicked near her ear. The sound was much sharper than she expected.

“Well, that’s great,” the human sighed, pulling her knees up and rubbing a hand across the smooth circle on her chest. The woman was looking at her now. If she was surprised to meet a mermaid, she didn’t look it.

The blond ran her fingers through her hair, never taking her eyes off of Hinata's pale eyes. Her fingers fanned the pale gold out onto white sand behind her as she steadied her breathing. Only to sigh when the sand stuck to the strands and she pulled a small crab out of her hair.

The blond finally spoke, voice rough with salt water, “Were you the one that brought me ashore?”

Hinata nodded enthusiastically, making another hand gesture towards the woman.

“Sorry beautiful, I’m not sure what you mean,” she said, winking at Hinata. The human made a rough rumbling sound and the mermaid sprung forward and touched her face. She tilted her head this way and that, looking for whatever her new human friend could be choking on. The noise stopped as soon as Hinata put her hands on the human’s face though. She felt a warmth come to life under her fingertips and caught the entranced gaze of two impossibly clear blue eyes.

Hinata felt her gills burn with a great deal more than exposure to air. Her tail slapped against the shore, spraying droplets of damp sand across the woman’s already drying clothes.

“You’re red as cherry, sweetheart,” the woman said, reaching out to tuck a strand of damp black hair behind Hinata’s ear.

The hair fell away from behind her ear as Hinata cocked her head to the side, tracing a circle through the air with a fingertip.

“Hm? What’s a cherry? It’s a fruit. It’s red,” the woman said with a small smile.

Hinata repeated the same counterclockwise circle, and pointed at the woman this time.

“My name is Ino,” the woman said.

Hinata nodded enthusiastically. _Ino_. What a beautiful name.

Hinata made a closed fist, with two fingers out for legs, and made a sweeping motion back from her face where Ino’s bangs fell in front of her eye before pointing to Ino.

“Is that for me? Is that you trying to say my name?” Ino asked, scooting forward in the sand.

Hinata nodded, making the sign again.

Ino clapped again, but this time she had a smile on her face. “What’s your name?”

Hinata frowned, putting her two closed fists together, spreading her fingers out like a bloom and twisted her wrists to make a circle. Ino repeated the motion, and Hinata smiled at her in return. The human didn’t look exactly perturbed by the sharp teeth in her friend’s mouth.

“It doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue,” Ino teased, making Hinata roll her eyes.

She held up three fingers, made an underline, and slapped her tail three times into the water.

“Three syllables?”

Hinata nodded, making a zigzag motion with her hand.

“I don’t follow,” Ino was starting to look confused.

Hinata reached forward, taking Ino’s slim fingered hand and pressing it to her throat. She couldn’t do more than sing a low tune from her stomach.

“Hnaata,” she hummed. It was as close to she would get as the underwater vocalization here. It wasn’t like Hinata was a huge talker even when she was under the waves.

Ino frowned but didn’t remove her hand, instead she leaned back and looked at Hinata’s lips. “Try again, make the shapes with your mouth. I’m decent at lip reading.”

Hinata repeated the hum, forming the empty words with her tongue and lips.

“Hinata?” Ino asked.

The mermaid slipped forward past her arm to give her friend a hug. They’d done it! And she’d learned something new! Cherries were a type of red fruit. Whatever a fruit was.

“Thank you, Hinata,” Ino said, pulling the mermaid tight against her chest. “Oh wow, you’re really not wearing a shirt. I mean, obviously. Who has time for shirts in the ocean.” She retreated, covered in a blush all the way up to her ears.

Hinata knew her gills fluttered as a puff of pitched air escaped from her lungs.

“Was that a laugh? Did you laugh?” Ino asked.

Hinata repeated the counterclockwise circle.

“A laugh is like this,” Ino said, forcing a laughing sound. It almost sounded like the choking sound she made earlier. So that’s what that was. A happy noise?

Hinata wriggled her fins back and forth. She nodded to show Ino that she understood.

Ino’s forced mirth became genuine.

The first rays of dawn painted pink light across Ino’s face in that exact moment like the sun was made only to highlight the planes of her face and crown her with a shimmer of gold. It was quite possibly the most beautiful thing Hinata had ever seen.

Hinata moved forward, pressing her lips to Ino’s before she could think on it further. Dawn met dusk, the midnight of her hair contrasting the bright, sun bathed gold of Ino’s. She wanted to remember everything about this moment. The contrast, the salt chapped softness of Ino's lips. 

There was the sound of a dog barking and someone yelling. The noise startled a gasp out of Hinata, who pulled back sharply. Ino tilted her head and then looked around.

“Did you hear something?” she asked.

Hinata nodded, making her two fingers walk across the sand to indicate that people were coming.

“You have to go right? Can we meet again? Three sunrises? I liked talking with you. There’s not many people that can speak with silence. I can’t really hear anymore, it’s been getting worse as I’ve been getting older. It used to sound like things were underwater, but now it’s just silence. Please, can I see you again?” Ino grabbed Hinata’s hands in her own, holding them gently and pressing a kiss to the tips of her fingers.

Hinata nodded and slapped her tail three times against the sand. Three sunrises.

She slid her hands out of Ino's, picking up a shimmering black scale off of the sand where she'd drug Ino ashore. She pressed the scale into Ino's hands and nodded. 

"Wait-" Ino said, pulling a golden hairpin out of her hair to clip the unruly strand of hair out of Hinata's face. Hinata hadn't even seen the golden clip in the blonde's hair.

Ino smiled at her, "Okay, now you can go."

It was a bit of work to shimmy down the shoreline. Hinata looked back to Ino, who had her hand covering her mouth. She was smiling.

The first waves crested over Hinata’s head, carrying her hair back away from her face. Just a little bit further and she’d be safe from whomever was going to find- and hopefully help, Ino.

The ebb and flow of the waves grabbed hold of Hinata, making it easy for her to slip away from the shoreline and out into deeper waters. She reached up to her hairpin, checking that it was still clipped in. It was. The currents carried her down and away from the spot where she left Ino on the beach. When she was far enough away, Hinata peeked out of the water and saw a blond human boy with tan skin hold out a hand to help Ino up while the boy's dark haired friend held back a strange looking dog.

They were good people then.

That was good.

Pushing down the wave of jealousy she felt for the man who could help Ino when she could not, Hinata committed the shoreline to memory. She would not forget this place. The fading stars above would guide her back home.

She would see Ino again.

**Author's Note:**

> Really, I wrote this lil thing as a break from my NaNoWritMo project, which has eclipsed November entirely, and is nearing 60,000 words with no end in sight now that it's December.
> 
> Check out my profile for links you can find me at.


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